EastWest is celebrating no less than 25 years in the biz. Since this is what’s known as a “silver anniversary”, the company has decided to release Hollywood Strings Silver and Hollywood Brass Silver as downloads today.
The price for these editions is $199 each and, as the name suggests, are more affordable and downsized versions of the Gold and Diamond editions.
Hollywood Strings is the most detailed string orchestra library available today. Recorded with a live orchestra at the famous EASTWEST STUDIO 1, the same studio where many Hollywood soundtracks and television themes were produced, Hollywood Strings offers unprecedented control over sound and performance. This collection of virtual sounds made by co-producers Doug Rogers, Nick Phoenix, Thomas Bergersen and Emmy Award winning sound engineer Shawn Murphy is a must have compositional tool for serious composers.
Hollywood Brass, also recorded at EASTWEST STUDIO 1 and the second installment in the Hollywood series, is the most powerful, realistic and extensive brass library ever created. Revolutionary fanfare patches are light on computer resources, but offer the most playable and instantly gratifying results on just one midi channel. Especially noteworthy are the articulations which really show how far EASTWEST went to create the ultimate orchestral brass library. Just like the Gold and Diamond editions, Hollywood Brass Silver contains pure Hollywood magic.
The upgrade to the bigger boys starts at $50/€40. What are the differences between the three?
* Diamond editions include all 5 mic positions, includes bow change legato and divisi exclusively and 24-bit samples.
* Gold editions include 1 mic position, all other instruments and articulations except these detailed above and 16-bit samples.
* Silver editions include 1 mic position, with limited instruments and articulations and 16-bit samples.
I have no experience with any of these products but I would be glad to hear from anyone who does.
No matter how good they sound (they are good ) they use EW proprietary software PLAY. Has had real issues on the Mac platform, seems to be much better on a PC. Do check your specs before buying.
Ah the days when they used Kontakt eh… was such a bummer when they switched. I agree Play has always been a bit flakey with PT compared to Logic but it seems a bit more stable these days.
Their libraries would of have such higher visibility if they’d stuck with the Kontakt format instead of that terribly designed and coded “PLAY” engine.